One of the more original story concepts. It reminded me of Passengers, only with a galaxy wide apocalyptic event triggering the interstellar travel. Very cool.
The beginning felt fast paced. You gave just enough context to understand the situation, but left things somewhat vague which kept things interesting. When I exit the ship, it’s an exposition dump. The story slows down here because it’s all questions and no action. My recommendation is to still keep things vague, limit how many questions can be asked, and then get to some action.
I really liked the story concept and you did a great job of painting a vivid picture of the world.